this could be so good. while reading it i was thinking that the book was like the equivalent of boogie nights in the sense that it takes a person with the memory of an elephant to do a proper period piece in a time and place that the author actually existed in. read the book.

Adapting the work of reclusive literary genius Thomas Pynchon seems like a fool’s errand. His novels—“Gravity’s Rainbow” and “The Crying of Lot 49”—among others, feature dense plotting, allegorical whimsy, and are stuffed so full of characters that any screenwriter stupid enough to attempt an adaptation must be suicidal. Unless that book is his latest “Inherent Vice” and unless the person adapting it is Paul Thomas Anderson. Acquired just over a year ago by CAA, “Inherent Vice” is now headed to the big screen. Vulture reports Anderson is hard at work adapting the book and while it’s not quite clear how far he’s gotten so far, apparently a treatment might already be done and he may be in the first stages of penning the script. And certainly, any Anderson project is a hot one and CAA who are repping the project “has been pondering the idea of trying to attach Robert Downey Jr. as Doc Sportello.” So, that’s basically a fancy way of saying he’s on a wishlist and as Vulture notes, Robert Downey Jr’s schedule is pretty much crammed for the next year as work on two major tentpoles, “The Avengers” and “Oz The Great And Powerful” (and that packed calendar recently forced him to drop out of Alfonso Cuaron‘s “Gravity”). Certainly, “Inherent Vice” is the most filmable of any Pynchon book. The 384-page “novella” follows a private detective uncovering a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer in drug-kissed 1960s Los Angeles. Many reviewers have even drawn comparisons to the psychedelic noir of “The Big Lebowski.” Downey Jr is being eyed for the leading role of the blissed out investigator, but obviously, these are very early stages. No word yet on what this means for Anderson’s gestating Scientology/religious cult drama “The Master.” Last we heard, the project was postponed indefinitely with Jeremy Renner hinting that Anderson was still getting the script and story to a place he liked, but we hoped that one hasn’t fallen to the wayside. “Inherent Vice” will mark the second project based off a previously published work and it remains to be seen if Anderson will stick to the pages of Pynchon’s work or, like he did with “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair (which was turned into “There Will Be Blood”), spin it into something uniquely his own.

Logged

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

It seems like a definite step backwards after TWBB. It points to him going back to his Scorcese/Altman phase, which I was kind of happy he had behind him.

I dunno about that. PTA always seems to be stretching himself with each project: When Magnolia was announced no one could have guessed the style and tone of it from the logline released to Variety ("six interwoven stories dealing with families, love and lonliness"). The same with Punch-Drunk Love - who in their right mind could have predicted that a 90-minute Adam Sandler romantic comedy would turn out like that? I even read Oil to try to get a handle on what CMBB might turn out like. I wasn't even close.

What I'm trying to say (in an admittedly clumsy manner) is that trying to speculate about the tone or style of the finished film is pointless, given that PTA has proven time and time again that his mind simply doesn't work the way ours do.

For all we know he could be using Inherent Vice as a jumping off point for a sci-fi thriller set on a space station.

I don't know if it's a step down for PTA. It isn't a Thomas Pynchon epic. It's a pretty light book for him so in the pantheon of recent filmmakers trying to take on huge novels, PTA would be downsizing compared to the Wachowski Brothers taking on Cloud Atlas and Ang Lee adapting Life of Pi. Those are big books. However, it will be how he adapts this book. He will have numerous ways to go about it and at least I believe would be different than anything he has ever done before. For a filmmaker who is still relatively young, that is important.

Still, I will wait for more confirmation before believing this report. Even if it's true, it could fall through very easily.

The Hollywood Reporter is confirming an earlier report that Robert Downey Jr. is in talks for Paul Thomas Anderson‘s big screen adaptation of Inherent Vice. After dropping out of Disney’s Oz, the Great and Powerful, Vulture reported last week that Downey was “interested in the lead role.” And now Risky Business confirms that the actor’s “commitment to Anderson’s movie has recently grown serious” and that he is “making plans to fill the fall hole in his schedule.”

We learned last week that Megan Ellison, the daughter of Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, was reportedly close to co-financing both of PTA’s upcoming films, the Scientology project referred to as The Master and the Thomas Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice. PTA apparently also has the blessing of Inherent Vice author Thomas Pynchon, and is partway through a second draft of the script, with the author being a frequent consultant on the project. As Russ pointed out in his earlier report, “that blessing is no small thing, given that no significant films have ever been produced directly based on Mr. Pynchon’s novels, and that the author is among the most reclusive major creators alive today.”

The novel based on this drug-addled detective story is already drawing comparisons to The Big Lebowski. Here’s the Amazon description of Inherent Vice:

Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon— private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog. It’s been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. It’s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that “love” is another of those words going around at the moment, like “trip” or “groovy,” except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists.